MEPs from the Foreign Affairs Committee focused on strengthening cooperation on foreign policy and connectivity in the Indo-Pacific region during their two-day visit to Japan.

A delegation of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee visited Japan on 24-25 July to discuss foreign policy cooperation with one of the EU’s closest allies in Asia. During the visit to Tokyo, MEPs held productive discussions with their counterparts in the Japanese Diet and the Japanese government, including the State Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Cybersecurity. A meeting with leading think tank representatives on connectivity and EU-Japan foreign policy cooperation provided further insights into the direction in which EU-Japan cooperation can be strengthened and deepened. Discussions had a strong focus on the security situation in the Indo-Pacific, the roles both Japan and the European Union can play to support a rules-based international order, and the strong support for Ukraine of both Japan and the EU.

Urmas Paet, Chair of the delegation, said: “The EU-Japan partnership is even more important in the currently turbulent times, when like-minded partners should stand as united as possible in defence of the international rules-based order.”
The EU and Japanese co-chairs of the Japan-EU Digital Partnership Council intend to meet again in 2024 in Brussels to review progress and take further steps to deepen the Partnership. Meetings and information exchange under the heading of the Administrative Arrangement on Cooperation in Critical Raw Materials Supply Chains have already started taking place. JOGMEC will also be invited to participate in dedicated workshops at the next EU Raw Materials Week on 13-16 November 2023.

Source: European Parliament